‘Maybe you think since your job pays the bills for her to be able to stay home, that SHE should do every single thing when it comes to the kids and home. Well, you are wrong.’

“Dad’s, listen up if your wife is a stay at home Mom and you work outside of the home that doesn’t mean when you get home your shift is over, that you’ve done your job for the day and now that you get home you don’t need to do anything.

Maybe somehow you think that because she stays home and her job doesn’t pay the bills that you don’t have to lift a finger when it comes to the kids or the bedtime routines or the baths and homework. That you don’t need to help clean up after the dinner she’s just made or do the dishes because that’s ‘her job’.

Maybe you think since your day job pays the bills for her to be able to stay home that she should do every single thing when it comes to the kids and home.

Well, you are wrong.

Being a Husband and father doesn’t come with a clock in and out time, it doesn’t come with exclusions on what you have to do and don’t have to do once you get home from that day job.

It doesn’t mean that because she stays at home that you get to check out after an eight hour day because you see the mom and dad shift is 24/7. It doesn’t come with holidays, days off or time to relax in the evenings with your feet up while she does everything from sun up to sun down simply because she’s a stay at home mom.

You see while you are out working that day job she’s home doing a job too, one that comes big responsibility so that you can be at that day job with the peace of mind that your babies get to be home.

Her job isn’t any less just because it doesn’t pull in a paycheck and it is no less deserving of a break.

So Dad’s when you walk in that door from a hard day’s work, know that chances are she’s had the same kind of day, she’s tired, drained and wants to sit down too but she can’t because she’s Mom and you shouldn’t either because you are Dad.

So help with the dishes, help cook dinner or with bedtime and baths and homework even when you are tired.

Do it because you are her other half, do it because you want to show your children that being a parent isn’t just one sided, do it because making a paycheck and paying the bills is necessary but the greatest work you’ll ever do as a human, as a father is right inside those four walls of your own home so out in your time there too.”

Nikki Pennington

This story was written by Nikki Pennington of Grief To Hope with Nikki Pennington. The article originally appeared here. Follow her on Instagram here and Twitter here. Can you relate to this story? We’d like to hear your story. Submit your story here, and subscribe to our best love stories here.

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